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Matthews forced out of Giro

Roger Vaughan

Crashes have blunted Australia's dream run at the Giro d'Italia, with Michael Matthews forced out of the race and Cadel Evans losing a team-mate.

Evans retained his 57-second overall lead and avoided a series of crashes near the end of the flat 173km stage 10 from Modena to Salsomaggiore.

But his Belgian BMC team-mate Yannick Eijssen crashed with less than 20km left and was taken to hospital.

While Eijssen suffered no broken bones, he landed heavily on his elbow and chest.

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His loss means Evans will be down a rider through the second and third weeks of the Giro and the key mountain stages.

"It is a big loss because Yannick was doing well and riding strongly," said BMC team director Fabio Baldato.

"It is important to have all of your riders when you are fighting to win the Giro.

"A lot of other teams have already lost riders and now it is harder for us."

Matthews was again impressive as he finished the stage third behind French winner Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) and Italian Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing).

But Orica-GreenEDGE later announced that Matthews would not continue.

The 23-year-old suffered deep bruising when he crashed in stage nine.

"After consulting with our medical staff, we have decided that it was the most prudent decision to take Michael out of the Giro," the Australian team said in a statement.

"He fought hard to get a result today and it was extremely impressive, knowing that he had a lot of pain after his crash the day before yesterday.

"He has a substantial contusion and is generally quite bruised, so everything taken into consideration, it was the right thing to do."

Orica-GreenEDGE won the stage-one team time trial and Matthews took the leader's pink jersey from Canadian team-mate Svein Tuft after stage two.

He then enjoyed an outstanding run, wearing the maglia rosa for six days and also winning the sixth stage.

Team director Matthew White told SBS that Matthews had wanted to pull out of the race on the day of his crash.

"Michael really wanted to stop a couple of days ago, the day of his crash," White told Cycling Central during the stage.

"You've got to remember the team here has been killing themselves for Michael for a week and he acknowledges that and he's trying to repay those guys for all the hard work they've done keeping him in the jersey," White said.